A/N: Sorry about the delay, but between the end of the semester and going back to work fulltime I have just been so busy. I'll try to stay on top of this story better in the future.

Disclaimer: Knock, knock.

Who's there?

The owners of Life With Derek.

Oh shit…

OOOOOOOO

Emily's eyes were bright with a strange combination of excitement, anxiety, and misery. This was where she had always ended the story in previous years. She would tell whatever nosy ex-classmate, gossipy former teacher, or mutual friend she ran into who felt the need to offer shallow condolences and empty sympathies the abbreviated version of the breakup, or the breakdown, as some witty journalist in the society pages of the local paper had taken to calling it. When asked, she would simply reply that she and Derek had broken up at Casey's wedding rehearsal—she offered her listeners no less and no more. If someone wasn't there to actually witness it, Emily didn't think they'd completely believe her tale anyway.

But, her children were different. They weren't out for entertainment. This was not simply a chance to here about some real life Jerry Springer type drama for them. Tony and Lauren were genuinely concerned, not only for their mother, but for their father, themselves, and their family. They needed to know. And, Emily needed to tell somebody, or she was going to explode. There had been hundreds of witnesses, but she could never really talk to anyone but Sharon about it.

"Tony," Lauren said, speaking softly and out the side of her mouth, "she's doing it again. I really wish she wouldn't stare off into space like that and tune us out, it's creepy."

"Tell me about," her brother said just as softly.

"I'm thinking, not deaf. I can hear you."

"Sorry about that, but you were doing the whole comatose thing again."

"I was just trying to sort some things out in my head, trying to figure out what exactly to tell you two," Emily admitted.

"Well, what did you mean when you said 'you would've been proud of me?'" Lauren asked.

Tony held up a hand. "You're jumping ahead, Ren. First tell us how you found out, mom."

"I was just in the right place at the right time or maybe it was the wrong place at the right time," she said wryly.

Emily took a look around the big banquet hall and sucked in a breath. She had to admit, she was impressed. This place had a notorious waiting list, you had to book it months in advance, but somehow Casey's dad had managed to get it for his daughter's rehearsal dinner. Emily figured that Casey's father, David, must have been the opposite type of lawyer from Mr. Venturi, because he was dropping a lot of change on this wedding. It was one of those weddings that was a three day event: the first evening was the rehearsal dinner, the second day was the actual wedding, and on the third day there was going to be a big going away party before Sam and Casey left on their honeymoon.

Emily may have been impressed, but she was far from jealous. Her wedding maybe wasn't going to be as lavish as Casey's, but with Derek as her groom, how could it not be perfect?

"Emily," her cousin and second-best friend, Sharon, called, breaking her out of her musings, "are you sure it's cool that I'm here?"

"Relax, the invitations said we could bring guests, and since Derek got his own invitation and you were in town this week I decided to bring you," Emily responded.

"I'll relax as soon as I have a couple of drinks in me."

"What are we waiting for, it's open bar."

An hour and about three vodka and sprites later, Emily was about to burst. "Okay, if I don't find the restroom soon I'm going to embarrass myself."

"Em, please, you're preaching to the choir."

"Excuse me, sir," Emily said turning to the bartender, "could you tell me where the closest restroom is?"

"Well aren't you a cute one," the bartender said, practically leering at her. "You know, I've been watching you all night…" he said waggling his eyebrows suggestively, letting his voice trail off.

"Really?" Emily asked, feigning interest. "Then you must've seen the gorgeous guy I walked in with, he happens to be my fiancé, and he has a really bad jealousy problem."

The bartender gave a hearty chuckle at that. "Somehow I doubt that, little lady."

Resisting the urge to roll her eyes at his lame choice of words, Emily frowned at the bartender. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, if we're talking about the same cocky, James Dean wannabe in the leather jacket, then I really don't think he's thinking too much about you right now. He just dragged the babe with the blue eyes out the back door," the man said smugly.

"Really?" Emily asked with an edge to her voice. "How could he be outside when he's sitting right over…" But her voice trailed off as her eyes hit upon the spot where she had seen him only moments before. He wasn't there.

"I told you."

Sharon threw the bartender a look that clearly said 'shut up'.

"I'm sure it's nothing, Em," she said, trying to prevent a breakdown. "It was probably just Casey he went outside with; I don't see her around either. They're probably just fighting or something.

"Why would they be fighting tonight?"

"The same reason they're always fighting with each other—because they like to."

Sharon was right of course, Derek and Casey seemed to genuinely enjoy fighting with each other these days. In fact, the closer that it had got to the wedding the more vicious their fights had become. Lately, it had appeared to Emily as though Derek and Casey were having a contest to see who could hurt the other more. Their relationship had lost almost all traces of the semi-friendship that had developed between them during the latter part of high school.

But to get into one of their famous Venturi/MacDonald blowups at Casey's wedding rehearsal was just too much, even if Casey and Derek had taken it outside. Emily usually tried not to interfere in their fights, but this really wasn't the time or the place. Emily figured she had better go outside and break it up before George and Nora noticed their children's disappearance and decided to go investigate themselves.

"Hellloo? Earth to Emily," Sharon said in a sing-song voice.

"Hey, you can go ahead to the restroom, I'm gonna go outside and see what's up with them."

"Just come to the girl's room with me, and then we can go out together. You know they will still be going at it."

"True, but I want to get it over with. I have a feeling that I'm going to be doing some yelling myself. We're getting too old for this; they can't go anywhere together without acting like a couple of five year olds," Emily said sounding annoyed.

"Alright, alright, I'll go to the bathroom by myself, even though you are totally breaking the girl code by making me do so," she said with a mock frown.

"Come find me when you're done, I'll probably still be trying to break up Tyson and Holyfield."

"So, I'm gonna take a wild guess: when you went outside you saw the exact opposite of a fight, huh?" Lauren questioned.

Emily shook her head and gave a mirthless chuckle. "Oh, no, I saw a fight. That just wasn't all I saw."

It wasn't long before Emily found them. Casey and Derek were forty feet away from her, but even at that distance it was obvious that they were fighting. However there was something that just wasn't right. Sure, Derek was wearing that same mask of anger that he always wore when arguing with Casey, and yes, Casey's eyes blazed with a familiar look of determination, but to Emily something was off. Maybe it was the way Derek's eyes seemed to be shining from unshed tears, or the way Casey's arms seemed to keep involuntarily moving as if they wanted to reach out to him. Whatever it was, Emily knew that this was not the typical Derek/Casey argument.

Emily kicked off her extremely cute, but incredibly loud, stiletto pumps and made her way towards Casey and Derek—she did not want to draw any attention to herself just yet. Crouching behind a hideously ugly, but exceedingly useful bush, she gave a silent prayer of thanks to God for the banquet hall's choice of a landscaper—this was the perfect hideout for an eavesdropper, or a peeping tom. She could hear them perfectly, and the view was almost just as great.

Casey and Derek were just staring at each other and Emily was staring at the two of them, waiting with baited breath. The night air was practically crackling with the intensity of it all.

Then something happened.

Casey hand flashed out and slapped Derek across the face.

"Damn you, Derek, damn you to hell for doing this on the night before my wedding! Why are you doing this to me?" she asked with a mixture of exasperation and anger.

Derek rubbed his abused cheek. "Why are you doing this to me?" He mocked her accusingly, but there was no humor in his voice. "Despite how we feel about each other, you're still planning on going through with this circus," it wasn't a question, but a statement of fact. "How could you?"

"Don't you dare put this all on me," she said menacingly, head shaking back and forth. "I may be getting married tomorrow, but I'm not the only one with a fiancé," she said as she reached under his shirt to and pulled out the chain that Emily had bought him a few months earlier. "We've both made our choices and now we have to stick with them. I am getting married tomorrow, and then next month you'll marry Emily and we can all live happily ever after," she said sarcastically.

"Casey," he said as he reached out to grab her.

"Don't touch me," she growled in response. But her attempts to extract herself from his hold were halfhearted at best.

"Casey, please," was all he said before grabbing her lips in a hungry kiss. In mere seconds her hands went from trying to beat him off, to trying to pull him closer.

They kissed, and kissed, and kissed some more.

Emily was feeling more than a little sick, but she just couldn't tear her eyes away from the unlikely couple. It was like when you're driving down the highway and you see a horrible car crash—nobody wants to see a flaming man running around like a chicken with its head cut off, trying to put himself out, but you just can't look away anyway. Well, there was one difference between watching Derek and Casey and watching the scene of an accident: Emily wished Casey would burst into flames.

Casey seemed to come to her senses, because all of a sudden she found the strength of ten grinches and pushed Derek away. When he made a move to recapture her lips, she took a giant leap back that almost caused him to fall on his face.

"Derek, we can't… we have a duty to our significant others." She sounded like she was trying to convince herself as well as him.

"Fuck duty…"

"Derek," she whispered softly, sadly.

"Fuck Sam…"

Casey closed her eyes and took a deep breath; she seemed to be trying to conjure up the will power to deny him what they both wanted so badly.

When her eyes opened, Derek slowly and deliberately brought his hand up to the necklace that Emily had given him not so long ago. As his fingers toyed with the locket that held the pictures of him and Emily, Casey shook her head back and forth, silently mouthing the word 'no'—she knew what was coming.

Yards away, Emily's demeanor was an exact replica of Casey's. She had this horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach—she knew what was coming too.

Snatching the chain from his neck in one quick movement, Derek threw it to the ground.

"Fuck Emily."

He took one tiny step towards Casey and cocked his head to the side in a half-questioning-half-inviting expression, but it was all she needed to see. Just like that she was in his arms.

Emily had seen enough too. Her knees and heart seemed to give out at the same time. Her bottom would have connected with the ground had it not been for the sudden appearance of her cousin Sharon.

Taking one look at her cousin—barefoot and dirty from hiding behind a bush, eyes red and puffy, breathing harsh and irregular—Sharon wasn't sure what to do.

"Jesus Emily, what happened?"

"Casey and D-D-Derek," she stumbled out through her cries.

"What about Casey and Derek? Are they okay?"

"They're fine," Emily spat, trying unsuccessfully to reign in her emotions. "Take a look for yourself," Emily said, motioning to the opening in the bushes that she had been gazing through.

Sharon's brows knitted together in confusion, but she did as she was told.

Sharon gasped. "Oh my god, oh my god!" she screeched, drawing back from the makeshift peep hole. "How long has this been going on?"

Sharon's question hit Emily like a bucket of ice. How long had this been going on? All these memories began flashing through Emily's mind: Derek defending Casey's honor, her first date with Derek being a double date with Sam and Casey, Casey's reaction to their relationship, the Vicki incident, the constant babysitting, her engagement ring's original inscription…

"Years," she answered quietly.

"Huh?"

"I don't know for certain, I may never really know, but I think this may have been going on for years."

"What are you going to do?" Sharon asked voice full of genuine concern.

Emily took one look at her ring finger and shot up like a rocket, grabbing her discarded shoes as she did so. "I think I'm gonna be sick," she whispered making a quick, but quiet dash for the door.

Sharon gave chase, careful not to draw the attention of Casey and Derek since Emily was apparently unprepared to confront them, and caught up quick.

"You go be sick and I'll go grab our jackets from the coat check. I will meet you outside of the restroom in a few minutes, and then we can get you the hell out of here."

"Thanks," was all Emily said before they went their separate ways.

"Wait a minute, where is the 'you would have been proud of me part'? So far you've hid in a bush, cried, and thrown up, nothing I would call pride worthy."

"Tony," Lauren fairly hissed, "shut-up."

"I'm sorry mom, you had every right to be upset, but please tell me that is not it. Blows had to be given; licks must have been dished out. If ever fighting words were uttered, it was that night. Tell me that somebody got their ass kicked, or champagne thrown on them or something… at the very least there had to have been an Alexis vs. Krystle style fight?" Tony inquired.

"Boy, what do you know about Dynasty?" Emily asked with a surprised smile.

"Look, men can enjoy," he stopped short and shrugged refocusing on the matter at hand, "was that it, or not?"

"Yeah mom, was there a knockdown-dragout fight, or what?" Lauren asked, curiosity getting the better of her.

Emily smirked. "What do you think?"

TBC

A/N: When I planned this storyline out, there was going to be a big confrontation in this chapter, but once I started actually typing it out I decided to put the blow up in the next chapter. If there are any questions or anything was confusing let me know and I'll try to clear it up.

Reviews Are Always Welcome!